Patient dies with over £6k worth of unused medicine

Patient dies with over £6k worth of unused medicine – Northern Ireland prescription charges debate needed, says Pengelly BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Health chief Richard Pengelly has called for a debate around the reintroduction of charges for prescription medicine in Northern Ireland. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/patient-dies-with-over-6k-worth-of-unused-medicine-northern-ireland-prescription-charges-debate-needed-says-pengelly-37717785.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article37717819.ece/bc046/AUTOCROP/h342/prescription_charges.JPG Email Health chief Richard Pengelly has called for a debate around the reintroduction of charges for prescription medicine in Northern Ireland. The Permanent Secretary said that he was aware of one patient who passed away with an estimated £6-10k of unused medicines in their possession. He made the comments at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster on Wednesday. Mr Pengelly was responding to a question from Labour MP Kate Hoey about wastage in the health service. He said it was difficult for doctors to think about saving money “in the heat of battle” when a patient’s health was on the line. The Department of Health (DoH) boss said that it was a “big issue” but there “wasn’t an easy answer”. Questioned by Ms Hoey about horror stories of wasted medicine, Mr Pengelly revealed that such stories were often true. “My recently retired Chief Pharmaceutical Officer told me a couple of months ago about a colleague of his who is a community pharmacist, a client of his had sadly passed away, but he had to go to the house to remove somewhere in the region of £6-£10k in unused medicines,” he replied. Mr Pengelly said that this medicine could not be put back into the health… [Read full story]